Eradicating violent extremism from Tunisia? Dry up the sources

It will be
important to empower young people, to train them to exercise critical thought, and
to make them conscious of the importance of their participation in
society. A call to civil society.

Salafist youth clash with police in Sousse, March, 2013.Demotix/Reporter #31359. All rights reserved.Over the last few months, international
news has resounded with horror stories, each more terrible than the last: the
killing of tourists at the Bardo National Museum, the assassination of
cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, the tragic hostage-taking at a kosher supermarket
in Paris, the massacres of Nigerians by the bloodthirsty groups of Boko Haram,
the atrocities committed by Daech in Syria and in Iraq…

The enormous number of murders, decapitations,
rapes and other horrors that are committed in the name of Jihad* furnish proof
that violent extremism and the radicalization of young people is a plague threatening
the stability of the nations in our modern world.

Tunisia took its first democratic steps in
a shaky national and international security context. Since the start of the conflict in Syria, it
is estimated that more than 3000 young Tunisians have joined the ranks of the
terrorist organization ‘Daech’. Many
others (the exact number is not known) have joined the radical movement of
Ansar Chariaa, a group that was declared a terrorist organization by the head
of the Tunisian government in August 2013.
Since the attack on the Bardo National Museum, links have been
established between this organization and Katibat Okba Ibn Nafaa, (the phalanx of
AQMI in Algeria and Tunisia). But very little information has been released
about the actual number of young Tunisians who have joined these.

The state responds to terrorist threats by
breaking up the active cells on its national soil. The international community organizes itself
to combat armed salafist* groups where they are found in Europe, Asia, Africa,
and the Middle East. All these safety
and military measures are taken in order to combat the violent extremism that
can in turn lead to terrorism.

However, one question remains, if we want
to understand terrorism and to eradicate it in the long-term: why does a young
person become a violent extremist?

What are the reasons that push someone to
leave their family – and often their country – in order to go and join the
ranks of an armed group listed as a terrorist organization, all at their
peril? The same question could be asked
in a different manner: what is it that makes a young person vulnerable to the
discourse of hatred and death, and blind even to the point of enrolling
themselves into the atrocities committed by a terrorist organization?

To respond to such questions, one must
return to the conditions of terrorist action, upstream of the radicalization of
young people who bulk out the ranks of terrorist organizations.

In effect, if we can say that every radical*
person is not a terrorist to-be, we must also say that every terrorist was
obviously radicalized before undertaking the violent act.

Therefore, in parallel to security and
military action, it is vital to combat terrorism at its roots by preventing the
radicalization of young people. In order
to do so, we must have an excellent knowledge of the conditions favorable to
radicalization, and we must understand the way these conditions are composed in
order to effectively reflect on the actions to be taken to eradicate it.

Over the course of our research and talks,
it has become apparent to us that there are many different profiles of young
people likely to be receptive to the discourse of violent extremism, and also that
their radicalization is not always directly linked to their economic
situation.

These young people can come from fortunate
backgrounds, from the middle class, but can equally come from poorer
backgrounds. At the beginning they share
the feelings of injustice, frustration, and anger. They are overwhelmed by the
desire to change something in their daily lives, but do not know how to begin,
let alone how to achieve this desire. Overriding this, they feel a vital need
to find answers to existential questions, to find the sense and meaning of
their lives.

The young people we are talking about are
generally educated: some are only literate, whilst others have had access to higher
education, but importantly all can read (though this does not necessarily mean
that they are capable of digesting what they are reading). They are connected
to the world via the Internet, and it is this multimedia support alongside
social networking that contributes to their indoctrination. If we want to categorize
complex profiles in a simple manner, we can divide them into two groups:
idealists and pragmatists.

The
idealists

The idealistic young people are those who
are sensitive to the injustices that they see around them and across the
world. Like many young people of their
age in the pursuit of an ideal, they can forget their own situation and
identify instead with the cause of the Palestinians or of the Syrians, for
example, because they consider themselves to be a part of the same Islamic
community or oppressed Ummah*.

Politically, in North Africa and in the
Middle East for example, they have not been brought up in a democracy, and taught
either about citizenship or about acceptance of the other. They have grown up in an environment in which
critical minds and originality are not encouraged and are in fact suppressed
whenever demonstrated.

In western countries young people grow up
in a democracy, but feel excluded because they are not integrated
effectively. In real terms they are not
seen as worthy of being treated as fully-fledged citizens. The pluralist
environment and the freedom of expression does not concern them directly
because they often do not believe in the usefulness of being active in a
political party, or of organizing themselves in an association or a trade union
in an effort to change things. In this
way, they feel that the current system does not concern them and therefore they
have no confidence in any institution.

Terrorist organizations know how to
exacerbate and crystalize these young idealists’ needs for engagement as well
as their need for solidarity, their need to belong to a unified group. The
leaders of these organizations know how to manipulate them by making them
believe that they are fighting for a just cause, one that requires courage and
abnegation. In the same way, they know how to transform frustration and anger
into hatred. From there, the path to a
violent act is only a matter of time.

The
pragmatists

For their part, the pragmatic young people divide
into two profiles: those who have a material need and those who have a need for
recognition and power. In effect, an
organization like ‘Daech’ facilitates all this: it nourishes, dresses, lodges,
heals, and pays its recruits. By filling
in for the welfare state, it becomes a concrete escape route for the poorest to
rise out of poverty. Simultaneously, it
knows how to use and distribute effectively the abilities present within its
ranks, thereby ensuring the smooth running of its structures. Equally, it knows how to reward and promote
its most loyal and disciplined soldiers.

Finally, terrorist organizations are able
to manipulate these young people by raising a global response to each and every
problem they face in their daily lives. Economics
clearly play a role but there is a whole political, social and cultural
environment that must also be taken into account. It is social exclusion and the disconnection
from life’s simple pleasures that forces vulnerable and receptive young people to
become attracted to radical discourse and violent extremism.

In light of this, how can we ensure that
young people do not become radicalized?
What solutions can each among us come up with in order to ensure that
these young people become more included in society, become happier, and are
able to blossom in the same way as any other young person?

These are the questions that we musk ask in
a comprehensive manner, but each solution must be brought forward locally and
in a manner that is specific to the context of the society which we are
focusing on.

Tangible hope in the short term

Unlike its neighbours,
Tunisia is a nascent democracy with a realistic hope of seeing the universal
values which are inscribed in the Tunisian constitution put into practice, a
hope of having real opportunities to face up to the real problems across the
country. These economic, social, and
cultural challenges require everyone and everything to make an effort to raise
the country – and above all its young population – from the slump in which it
finds itself.

The role of the
new government is crucial: reforms in all sectors and on all levels are
essential in order to repair the failures of our system – most importantly in
the spheres of education, healthcare, finance, security, justice – and to
reestablish the citizens’ confidence in state institutions.

But even if these
reforms are initiated quickly, they will take some time to become concrete and
they will certainly take some time to touch the priority sectors for youth
development: culture, arts, and sport.

In the short term,
it is civil society that should occupy the areas forsaken by the policies of
the state regarding culture and sports.
It is civil society that will be required to socially and economically
include children and young people who live in these areas. Civil society must swim upstream in order
that young people might not be excluded from society, and downstream in order
that young people can rejoin it, by creating cultural, artistic, and sports
activities that might interest them.

It is important
that associations are able to give to young people a taste for life, to give
them hope for their futures with an attractive alternative – a just cause to
defend – far from the incitement to hatred or the rhetoric of death that is
celebrated by terrorist organizations.

We must give adolescents
and young people advantages in life in order that they may become creative and
innovative, in order that they may foster great capacities for distinction and
analysis so that they can in turn construct positive personal objectives. At the same time, education has a crucial
role to play since it represents a rampart against obscurantism. It will be necessary to teach Tunisia’s
history in a different manner as well as that of Islam, to ensure that there
are no spiritual voids or historical gaps which recruitment professionals could
exploit. The objective should be to
train young people to exercise critical thought, to become resistant to
brainwashing and any attempt at manipulation by allowing them to discover other
aspects of life outside of their family circle and social group. It will be important to empower them and to
make them conscious of the importance of their participation in society.

Next, it is
necessary that organizations offering apprenticeships and professional training
– as well as employer organizations – become involved and offer opportunities
to young people nearing the age of professional integration, opportunities that
exceed the assets and aspirations of these young people.

In effect, having
contributed to their insertion into the community, it will be a question of
pushing them to find their path and to direct themselves in their choices of
training and occupation. Thanks to
mentoring programs, work-placements, paid apprenticeships and paid professional
training programs that will in the end lead to employment, the private sector
will profit from helping young people to acquire the necessary attributes to
fulfil its needs. In the end, these
young people should be capable of integrating themselves into the world of
work, or of creating their own work should they be unable to find an occupation
that suits them.

To conclude, it is
up to civil society, to educators, to the private sector and to everyone among
us to supervise and guide children, adolescents, and young adults. That is
until the state takes up its role as protector, educator, and first point of
responsibility for the blooming of its youth.

Exclusion from
society and the disconnection from life’s simple pleasures go a long way in
explaining why young people become radicalized, but every society must look
into its own context in order to explain and understand this exclusion and this
isolation.

It is vital that
each society should understand the causes of the vulnerability of its young
population, and vital that each society should begin without hesitation to
undertake positive actions to help these young people to blossom into worthy
citizens.

*Radical: someone who presents an absolute, total,
or definitive character

*Ummah: The Muslim community, the ensemble of
Muslims across the world. (This notion marks the surpassing of tribal, ethnic,
or national belonging by the idea of religious belonging)

Thanks for translation from the French to Asher Korner.

About the author

Omezzine Khélifa is a Tunisian politician and a social activist who was a ministerial advisor to the first two governments in Tunisia during their transitional phase. She currently directs a non-profit organisation which aims to stimulate social inclusion and transformation by using art, culture, and sport.

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